The start of the race was catastrophic for the Sauber team,
with both of their drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Johnny Herbert eliminated immediately after a
collision at the first corner while trying to avoid hitting
Olivier Panis, who was attempting to
rejoin the track having spun off at the same corner in a separate
incident when he ran into Rubens
Barrichello. Panis was also forced to retire on the spot;
Barrichello was able to continue, although he had to pit to repair
his suspension, putting him two laps behind; however, this proved
all to no avail as his suspension collapsed completely on lap 29,
forcing him out of the race altogether.
On lap 10, Jos Verstappen pitted with a sticking throttle. No
damage was found and the Dutchman was released from the pits, but
spun straight off on his return. The incident brought out the
safety car for seven laps, during which time all the drivers
besides the McLarens of Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard (both
running a one-stop strategy) made pit stops. Williams driver
Jacques Villeneuve, leading the race at the time, missed his stop
on lap 13 (later explaining that he misunderstood the radio
instruction to come in due to the confusion brought about by the
arrival of the safety car), and Damon Hill in the sister Williams
was already on his way into the pits when radioed to stay out on
the following lap, effectively costing Villeneuve the win and Hill
a second place. The latter went down to thirteenth when he finally
got to make his pit stop on lap 16, but recovered to 5th place by
the end of the race.
Footwork/Arrows' team boss Tom
Walkinshaw confirmed after the race that the throttle problem
that had caused Verstappen to stop shortly before his crash had not
recurred, and that the crash was caused by a faulty wheel.
The Tyrrells of Mika Salo and Ukyo Katayama finished in seventh
and eighth places respectively. A fast early stop during the safety
car period saw Salo running as high as third at one point.
.
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